while a non-smoker myself, i've had this tape ready to go for a while, and the coincidence of today's would-be holiday seemed difficult to resist; so here we have it... mr. khamron sambunnanon, singing the songs of the "ganja madman"! khamron is considered by many to be the very first singer of luk thung, with his recording of hem wechakon's "chao sao chao rai" dating from 1938, and many of the great luk thung stars of the 60's & 70's fondly recall listening to khamron's songs during their formative years. his lyrics were the earliest examples of thai pop music to feature tales of common people; farmers, day laborers, and even more marginal figures like gamblers, vagrants, outlaws and drug addicts. great old sounds (and even some yodeling on side 2)... hope you enjoy!!

this week, a classic entry in the thai indie rock catalog! judging by the surfeit of copies filling the second-hand bins of the capital city, i imagine this tape was in the deck of every hip bangkok teen, circa 1995. the sounds presented here may not be what most consider "indie rock" (whatever it is we do consider it), but with industry giant sony given equal standing with bona-fide (at the time) independent labels like bakery music, it seems the thai notion of "indie" is at least as inconsistent as it is elsewhere. stylistically, you have everything from 90's alt-rock/grunge (blackhead, moderndog) to smooth, m.o.r.ish ballads (ford, byrd & heart), and then stuff closer to the jangly international ideal of indie rock (holly berry, si tao thoe). enjoy!

something out of the ordinary this week; northern-style party music from the late nineties! i don't know anything about num'ek chetsada, other than that he comes from northern thailand, chiang mai most likely. his singing is influenced by lae, the central thai luk thung sub-genre which in turn is derived from isan-style thet lae sermonizing.. num'ek mixes in bits of the northern thai dialect to inject some local pride into the proceedings. the music in the background is of the synth-heavy drum machine mega-mix style popular around the time of the recording (1997). enjoy!

enchanting songs of thailand

a collection of great music made by the people of thailand; luk thung, luk krung, molam, regional folk styles & more. mostly recorded from tape, sound quality should be pretty good (unless stated otherwise). transliteration is done using the royal thai general system of transcription. feedback/re-upload requests/etc. always appreciated!